You Should Care About New York’s Mayoral Race 

The New York mayoral race may not seem important to those outside the city, but the Democratic primary June 24 could reveal the party’s direction — and everyone should be paying attention.

The current front runners are New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Other prominent candidates include Speaker of the New York City Council Adrienne Adams and the extremely unpopular incumbent mayor Eric Adams. Cuomo and Mamdani are leading the race, according to polling by Data For Progress and ABC7 New York. 

In many ways, New York’s mayoral race is a microcosm of the nationwide divide between the Democratic Party’s two major factions. Mamdani is a democratic socialist, situating him much further left than the majority of the party. He’s campaigning on economic and social justice issues similar to those championed by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and challenging the centrists in the party.

The divide between these progressive and centrist Democrats has become an issue within the party, especially as Democrats point fingers in the wake of their decisive election defeat in the 2024 election. The fractured political party recently hit an all-time low approval rating of 27%, according to NBC News.

Whoever wins the mayoral election in June will have New York as a stage to prove whether their ideas work — and though the city isn’t a perfect representation of America, it has a large influence on the nation. The name recognition, momentum and political power that comes with the New York mayorship means this race is crucial for parsing out the party’s next steps.

New York’s Democratic primary should be on the minds of Democrats and Republicans alike across the U.S. because it’s one of the first high profile contests between Democrats since November.

Cuomo is the candidate with the most name recognition and has led in early polls, whereas Mamdani entered the race largely unknown, according to The New York Times. Mamdani’s socialist politics and ambitious left-wing ideas made him an early outsider, but his grassroots fundraising success has proved he’s a force to be reckoned with. 

Mamdani is focusing on economic issues. If elected, he plans to freeze rent for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments, make buses free, provide free childcare and establish city-run grocery stores, according to his website.

As of the last campaign fundraising statement released March 13, Mamdani’s campaign had raised $1,489,649 from 17,772 donors, with an average campaign contribution of $84, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board. He also received an additional $962,383 from NYC’s Matching Funds Program, which matches the donations of NYC residents under $2,000 dollars eight to one.

Mamdani said March 24 he had hit the city’s mayoral fundraising cap, reaching $8 million in campaign funds, according to the Gothamist.

Housing in New York has become increasingly unaffordable. Nearly a quarter of city households not receiving public housing assistance pay more than half their income towards rent, according to The New York Times. 

The median house price in the U.S. hit a record high of $407,500 in 2024, according to Reuters, and the New York median rent also hit a record high in 2023 at $3,500, according to the New York City Comptroller. Chicago isn’t exempt from these trends, as average rents rose from $1,440 in 2018 to $1,663 in 2025, according to Statista.

Polling estimates housing costs are a top issue for 29% of NYC voters, according to The Manhattan Institute, so Mamdani’s focus on economic issues has broad appeal. Mamdani is part of a movement among some Democrats to focus on socialist solutions to problems of economic inequality. The majority of Democrats usually advocate for some government intervention in the economy, while condemning socialists who advocate for ending capitalism.

Progressive and socialist Democrats are moving against neoliberal Democrats, advocating for the government to take a larger role in the economy by creating universal healthcare and building more public housing. Neoliberals usually advocate for minimal government intervention in the economy while progressives are more likely to support government intervention. 

Socialism and universal healthcare were once considered to be on the fringe, but as discontent with the Democratic Party grows and the influence of wealthy donors becomes more apparent, more voters are willing to consider other options. 

This momentum has been harnessed by politicians like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, who spoke on growing wealth inequality and the formation of oligarchy in America in front of a more than 30,000 person crowd in Denver March 22.

Cuomo’s campaign aligns more with a moderate Democrat perspective, touting talking points similar to those of Adams. 

He’s marketed himself as a “law and order” candidate, painting a picture of a chaotic and crime-ridden New York, which he says he’ll save by increasing the size of the New York Police Department and stationing officers on the subway. 

Cuomo also advocates for forcing mentally ill homeless people into mental health treatment and codifying in statute the existing standard which “permits involuntarily committing individuals who are a danger to themselves because they cannot meet their basic needs,” according to his website. 

“You see it in the empty storefronts, the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence,” Cuomo said in his campaign announcement video. “The city just feels threatening, out of control and in crisis.”

Mamdani doesn’t focus on crime in his campaign and is sometimes at odds with law enforcement. He was recently featured in a viral video being held back by police as he yelled at “border czar” Tom Homan in protest of Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and possible deportation. 

Cuomo has taken a strong pro-Israel stance. He leads a pro-Israel advocacy group called “Never Again, NOW!” committed to educating people on “the spread of antisemitism on college campuses, and the truth about Hamas.” He’s a harsh critic of the pro-Palesitinian protests in New York and has framed them as antisemitic.

Khalil is a student at Columbia University and green card holder who was arrested for his pro-Palestinian advocacy and imprisoned in Louisiana, according to NBC News. The candidates’ stances on Khalil’s arrest illustrate the Democratic Party’s divide over Israel — another major schism in the party.

Mamdani has campaigned against Khalil’s arrest and continues to advocate for an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. As an assembly member he introduced the “Not on our dime!” act May 2023, which would restrict not-for-profit businesses in New York from funding “Israeli settler violence.”

This election represents an ideological reckoning for the Democratic Party, the outcome of which could decide the party’s future politics. The result will be an important factor in the type of politics the Democrats embrace in upcoming elections — including Chicago’s mayoral race in 2027.